You will love this video of Dee Williams, produced by the National Building Museum for their "House and Home" exhibit. If you are planning to go to the Santa Fe workshop, Dee will be showing the video and letting you in on all the behind-the-scenes goodness. Why not join us in Santa Fe?

Sage walks the walk, raises chickens, keeps bees, and lives partially off the land in the city- yes, in Boston. He'll have some very interesting stories of his run-ins with inspectors, the law, and more, while doing what he does, where he is, and how he wants. He spoke with me at Walden Woods last year for a "Tiny House Seminar" I headed, and it drew THREE TIMES the crowd the park hoped for (and now they want to make it a yearly event)- score one for the tiny house movement! This guy will be a big draw at the Boston Workshop so make sure to get your tickets ordered quickly!

Here is a video tour about Sage and his gypsy wagon that videographer Steven Sherrick and yours truly shot. More on Sage can be found at GypsyLiving.org and SelvaGuitars.com. You'll love this guy- he's all heart.

I'm Alex Pino and I presented at the Tumbleweed Miami Tiny House Workshop about minimalist living. Every Monday please join me for a new post about minimalism with practical tips and strategies to create a less cluttered life. After you read this post, you'll get to grasp some of the ideas that I shared and how you can put them into practice today and experience real results.

Most of you already know you want to simplify your life. You want less clutter, stuff, square footage, and overall just more freedom. The question is, where are you in regards to that right now? How much stuff do you have to get rid of now. I was surprised yet relieved when I found out that some of the people who were attending the workshop came from a family of hoarders and that they had tons of work to do before they could ever consider themselves “simple” or even “minimalist”.

What's really stopping you from getting rid of your clutter?

Most of us know that we want simpler lives already we just haven't gotten ourselves to take action towards it yet, but why not? Could it be that giving ourselves a powerful enough reason to start is harder than actually doing it? I think so. One way to overcome this is to dig deep within yourself and figure out why the heck you really want this freedom that you're looking for. Freedom itself is just way too general. So let's get more specific.

Do you want to move into a tiny house because you want to change your career, hate your job, don't like where you live, are frustrated with corrupt corporations, or maybe just because you just want to spend more time with the people in your life? Take your time with this because only something this meaningful will give you the power to separate yourself from your stuff. I believe that these are the “juicy” ideas that give you the drive to part with your unimportant stuff and keep it that way.

This is also the driving force that will get you to build your home and make this dream of yours a reality... step by step. Open up a blank word document on your computer right now and make ten bullet points then list some exciting goals you have, which you haven't yet achieved. Goals that excite you.

Here are five of my own exciting goals which help drive me towards “minimalism”, yours might be different:

To travel throughout the United States

To build and live in a mortgage-free tiny house

To enjoy fun times with my niece and nephews

To live out of a backpack and travel around for 3 months

To inspire and help other people who want to simplify and live more passionately

Do you see how these goals I have for myself might create a little leverage for me? For example, if I want to help other people simplify, I should do it myself, too. I might like having three computers right now, but will that get me the excitement to live out of a backpack and travel for several months? Nope. So I've got work to do, too!

Common mindsets that will not serve you when simplifying

Here are some of the common mindsets that I've found which have kept people like you and me from freeing ourselves from our clutter:

“I might need this [widget] later and I paid good money for it in [year].”

“This was my grandfather's first television, and he was in the Cold War.”

“These are worth $3 each on eBay and I have 100 of them.”

“My storage unit is packed from the floor to the roof, where do I even begin?”

Notice the difference between these bullet points (excuses) and the ones above (goals). Everyone has excuses because they're easy to create. Choose to focus on goals instead because they give you the mental power to move forward instead of one step forward, and two steps back, like some folks do (including myself at times).

Check out the trailer for "We, The Tiny House People" from filmmaker Kirsten Dirksen. Her foray into the world of the tiny house movement features our very own Austin Hay (who is growing up before our eyes!) in his tiny-house-in-progress. It will be interesting to see the entire documentary when it is completed. In the meantime, why not get your hands on a set of tiny house plans?